Interludes

THE HANGOVER REPORT – Shaina Taub’s joyous musical adaptation of TWELFTH NIGHT makes a welcome return to the Delacorte

• By drediman
• August 1, 2018
• No Comments

Nikki M. James in Shana Taub’s “Twelfth Night” at the Delacorte Theatre.

Last night, Shaina Taub’s joyous, smartly-truncated musical version of Twelfth Night opened at the Delacorte Theatre in Central Park, courtesy of the Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park. Ms. Taub’s adaptation, which originated as a Public Works offering a few years back at the same venue, features a cast comprised of a hodgepodge of both accomplished professional actors and not-so-professional thespians culled from communities across New York’s five boroughs. Somehow, this yin-and-yang approach makes for an oddly combustible combination that yields delicious results.

Ms. Taub clearly has a very good handle on Twelfth Night, one of the Bard’s most popular and oft-performed comedies. Her incisive and well-judged cuts to the underlying text, in concert with her inspired additions, exemplify an artist who is invested in and capable of recasting Twelfth Night for the here and now. For example, the cross-dressing elements of the story – originally purely a plot device – is in this adaptation an act of empowerment, particularly for Viola, the play’s heroine. It also doesn’t hurt that Ms. Taub’s delightful score (she wrote both music and lyrics) are heartfelt and instinctive, qualities that unlock the vibrant, high-flying emotions of Shakespeare’s characters and their respective plights as few productions of the play I’ve seen.

The magical thing about the Oskar Eustis-helmed production is that that it doesn’t seem very directed at all. There’s a freewheeling, almost improvised aspect to the whole endeavor – a characteristic shared by nearly all of the community-focused Public Works productions I’ve seen in the past – that’s refreshing and a total pleasure to behold. But make no mistake about it, I’m almost certain that plenty of attention has been paid to the staging’s details with the goal of making it all seem effortless. The cast is just about perfect, but I would like to single out the incandescent Nikki M. James’ soulful Viola and Andrew Kober’s Malvolio, who almost runs off with the show with his snooty antics. And let’s not forget the diminutive but knowing Ms. Taub herself, who proves to be the warm, jovial voice of reason over the course of the evening (all three are returning from the brief initial Public Works run).

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

TWELFTH NIGHT
Off-Broadway, Musical
The Public Theater’s Free Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theatre
1 hour, 30 minutes (without an intermission)
Through August 19